Registered

I know a lot of you guys have tow rigs and such, this may be relavent.
There were about 30 replies to this post of guys who have had or know of people who had their cats cut off. This is all over town, Malls, stores, factories etc

AO said:

Rumor has it that Toledo has a fun new theft epidemic; stealing the catalytic converters off of vehicles. One was stolen off of a car in Target's parking lot yesterday evening. Obviously they're targeting taller vehicles :?

Mark Janowiecki put up a fence, installed security cameras, and increased lighting at his heating and cooling business in downtown Toledo, but it hasn't stopped thieves from breaking in.

On Saturday, someone cut the fence that surrounds M&M Heating & Cooling Inc., 1515 Washington St., and stole catalytic converters from five company vehicles and copper piping from air-conditioning units.

He said his loss totaled about $10,000, about $2,000 for the converters and $8,000 in copper.

Mr. Janowiecki said he doesn't want to move out of Toledo, but he's run out of options.

"I like downtown, but it's getting hard to survive down here," said Mr. Janowiecki, company president. He plans to move his firm to Rossford by next year.

The theft of catalytic converters has become increasingly worse during the last year because the platinum inside them makes them a desirable theft target, said Toledo police Sgt. Chris Delaney, of the theft unit.

Catalytic converters are part of a vehicle's exhaust system that reduces harmful emissions.

Platinum is a precious metal and is sold at an average of $1,252 per troy ounce, the standard unit used to measure precious metals. Twelve troy ounces equals one pound.

The price of platinum has continued to climb over the last four years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, an agency that is part of the Department of Interior.

Police said thieves are selling stolen converters to scrap yards or auto repair shops, though they are unsure at what price.

"It's mostly black market," Sergeant Delaney said. "No legitimate scrap yard or garage would buy those from some guy in a pickup truck."

Joel Scheinbach, warehouse manager at Pat Young Service Co., an auto parts distributor, said it frustrates him knowing there are people willing to purchase stolen property.

Mr. Scheinbach said catalytic converters were stolen last week from four of the 10 vehicles he had parked on his property at 1122 Monroe St.

He estimates thieves receive between $75 and $150 for a stolen catalytic converter.

Mr. Scheinbach decided to install motion-sensing lights and security cameras in an effort to deter thieves at the business, which is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.

It's estimated that between 300 and 500 catalytic converters were stolen from Faurecia Exhaust Systems Inc., 543 Matzinger Rd., which manufactures catalytic converters and exhaust systems, during the last year.

Two hundred of those were stolen within the last month, according to a police report.

The estimated loss was between $25,000 and $30,000, a police report stated.

Catalytic converters can be removed from a vehicle within minutes using an electric saw.

They often are stolen from pickups, delivery vehicles, and sport utility vehicles that are higher off of the ground, making it easier for thieves to crawl underneath, Sergeant Delaney said.

Initially, thieves targeted businesses like Mr. Janowiecki's, which have several service vehicles parked outside. But now they're stealing catalytic converters randomly from vehicles, the sergeant said.

A catalytic converter was stolen from a man's vehicle while he was inside a hardware store, Sergeant Delaney said.

"It's gotten to where these guys are getting them pretty quick," he said.

Bob Amonette, who owns Bob's Tire & Auto, 1618 Monroe St., said he installed a catalytic converter in a woman's minivan last week after it had been stolen while she was at a sporting event at Waite High School. Her bill was $649.

Police continue to investigate thefts of catalytic converts, but Sergeant Delaney said making arrests is difficult unless they catch thieves in the act or someone tips off authorities.

And the sergeant said that isn't usually the case.

"The people who are buying them have to know they're stolen," he said.

Registered

Registered

Seem to be the new pass time here in upper Wisconsin. I heard of a few getting stolen here and I couldn't figure out what they where finding so lucrative to risk crawling under a vehicle with a sawsall. but now I see it's the Platinum that's in them there after .... I thought there was just Ceramic filters in there. didn't know there was Platinum too .
Wow $15,024 per pound of Platinum wonder just how much Platinum there is in each unit. I heard you can get 16V Sawsalls for about $250 bucks .

Registered

we are starting to get the same problem here in the uk its not electric saws they use (wont go into details -online ) but there are quicker and less noiser wayes of taking them, also the price of scrap cars are so high now scumbags are stealing peoples licenced cars and running them in for scrap ....i have had a van and a my mercades car stolen in the last 12 months.

Registered

Glad none of my vehicles have catalytic converters. Newest is a beat to hell '86 F-250 and I have a wonderful sticker on the rad support that says "NON-CATALYST". That rad support is going into my next truck. :twisted:

We have been having this problem forever! For example; this last hospital we are building we have had problems. Hospital maintance workers would come into the new construction area stealing copper cut offs, electricians spools of wire. Even had the nerve to take a Av box and rip the condensing unit out of it!

Registered

When I was doing the "dyno guy" gig, I'd take my battery powered sawsall with me to the shop and take all the cats off the piles of Mustang H-Pipes they had in the recycling bin...every Saturday.

I'd get between $6-12 a cat for them at the recycling yard for the 30 seconds it took to collect one. And, this was while I was waiting for the cars to finish and/or get prepped on the dyno prior to tune; so it filled my waste time. Free money.

Registered

there are 3 precious metals in them ill have to look it up again but ill buy all of them you can get for 10 and up maybe a whole lot more than that the new converters arent the ceramic based they are a wire foil deal not worth much . we have been haveing radiators cat converters and trans. all stollen out of our salvage yard. we had a semi trailler that had radiators we had stored for sale and they cleaned it out along with what was still on the cars and trucks in the yard . lots of lazy butted drug headed waste of oxegen out there these days

Registered

i do scrapping on the side for exttra cash to support my truck pulling adiction
if i get a car for scrap the first thing i do is cut the cat off
i have never gotten less than 20.00 for one
i have gotten up to 70.00
and next trip should be even better
they pay the most for cat's off imports
than gm's
dodge is next
and they give the least for ford's cat's
but i have sold them to recying centers they pay about the most
and i sold some to a guy locally
eather way you bring them in and they dont ask any questions
i have seen some freaky guy's there selling stuff that could very well be stolden it is getting scary
it kinda started some of us guy's around here were takeing old derby cars in and junk for extra cash
now you see ganster typ people selling stuff the scrap yards
kinda makes you wonder were they got it? i am shure it wasnt in the back 40 were grand pa had a few junkers

Registered

we get sighned recites from who ever we buy stuff from anymore to help cover our butts on them . had a guy come in wanting to sell some and we even knew him. well he had cut them off at a car lot i dont know how anyone has that kinda balls or gall maybe to do it but it happens

Registered

At my shop here in Ohio, we get $100 for a typical 4 cat FORD h-pipe. $30-40 for the smaller Ford cats. And that's from the licensed scrap guys that take them to Columbus scrap yards. The Columbus yards are not supposed to deal with unlicensed scrap guys. He also pays us $7 each for junk batteries. Johnny(scrap guy) makes $3 bucks each on the batteries in Columbus. Some Cinncinati yards are paying $15 a piece for batteries. A junk yard called him to pick up 300 car batteries one time. Wonder how the yard kept that from OSHA!! A month ago, he should me he cleared an average of $3500 for each of the last 3 weeks. He drives alot of miles & busts his *** picking up the heavy scrap everyday. Guess he enjoys it though.

I used to do that with old batteries I wanted to get rid of. Just put them out back in the alley and they are gone in no time. Hell I could just drive around south Louisiana and pick up lots of old washers and lawnmower tractors.

A friend of mine built a house this year and had his power line stolen for the copper mid build.

I haven't been coming on here much anymore as my BBF projects are all "done", but holy cow, is there any moderators left? I'm trying to help out by reporting spammers as I come back, but wow, there's a TON of them, and it seems like some that I report go unnoticed for days or weeks.